Dear Friends,
The season of Lent 2019 has ended ushering in the great feast of Easter. Lent was a time in which the Church called us in very special ways to prayer, fasting and alms-giving. In many ways, it was also a time that the Church encouraged us to put aside pride, cut or reduce the quest for pleasure, power, prestige, possessions etc. and focus attention on giving God His proper place in our hearts and minds
Many years ago I listened to a TV evangelist who defined the words Integrity and Reputation in very interesting terms. He said, to him, integrity is “one’s record with God” and reputation is “one’s record with men”. Trusting that “Lent 2019” has been a blessing to you and your families, I hope that it has also greatly improved your “integrity record with God” rather than your “reputation record with men”,
As the Easter season is here with us once again, I greet you in the name of the risen Lord, with a gentle reminder to try to sustain whatever “integrity record” you were able to achieve with God during lent. Let your resolve be to sustain and even make better, the new levels you have attained in your prayer lives, alms-giving and fasting by the opportunity of the just ended Lenten period, the resurrection power of the risen Lord being your helper and strength in your effort.
Carrying on from our Lenten spiritual gains, I pray that the Spirit of the risen Lord will increases in us the desire for the things of God and strengthen our resolve to be good Catholic Men, honest, truthful, charitable and caring in our dealings with other children of God.
And let us not forget in this period to pray for our Church which is clearly in crisis as a result of the clerical abuse of minors, a situation that some have described as perhaps the worst since the Reformation.
HAPPY EASTER my friends and see you in Luxembourg in August.
EDDIE PRAH
(PRESIDENT, UNUM OMNES)